Mason Wheeler 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (4010) comment rss

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2016 @ 02:16pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Also, hitting someone while driving through a "yield" sign would easily qualify.

    Yield signs are a bit of a sore spot for me at the moment, because in Pennsylvania I see them all over the place in places where they should not be: at the end of on-ramps.

    If you've ever been to a driver's ed course, you'll remember that the purpose of an on-ramp is specifically to give you space to get up to speed and merge onto the highway safely. But around here, the civil engineers appear to have failed to understand that: instead of continuing for a reasonable distance (ie. at least half a mile), the lanes provided by most on-ramps vanish right after they meet up with the main highway, with a big YIELD sign there, which is dangerous (it's only safe to merge if you're going approximately the same speed as traffic in the lane you're merging into, and yield can potentially mean having to come to a complete stop with no more room to accelerate!) and defeats the entire purpose of having the on-ramp in the first place.

    Mind you, I've got nothing against Yield signs used well. They have a legitimate purpose. I just don't see very many of them used right anymore.

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2016 @ 10:46am

    Re:

    Assuming the cars have a way of communicating with other autonomous cars, the problem you're describing is equivalent to a programming problem known as a "live lock". There are several well-understood solutions for successfully resolving a live lock, which basically boil down to (much more formalized versions of) "have them flip a coin to decide which one gets to go first."

    This is not actually a real problem.

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2016 @ 07:13am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Yeah, and in California it's also legal for some idiot on a motorcycle to drive between two busy lanes of traffic. That says a lot more about California lawmakers than about what is and isn't actually a good idea.

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2016 @ 07:10am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    That notion's been around for a long time. No idea if it's a real traffic law or not, but this is the first time I've heard anyone use it for anything other than a trollish attempt to justify tailgating, which is never justifiable under any circumstances.

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2016 @ 07:08am

    Re: Re:

    It's not about the law; it's about courtesy. If someone who's already ahead of you needs to pull in, civilized drivers drop back a little and let them. Jerks continue forward as fast as they can, and evil California troll drivers see the signal and pull forward just far enough to be in their blind spot and then stay there, endangering the lives of everyone involved.

  • On the post: 5G Wireless Hype Overshadows Fact Nobody Actually Knows What 5G Is Yet

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2016 @ 07:18am

    5G? But we don't even have 4G yet!

    Do your phone and your carrier support 4G LTE? Mine do. Do you know what the "LTE" part stands for?

    LTE is "Long-Term Evolution," which literally means exactly what it says. 4G LTE: "this is not actually 4G quality yet, but we'll get around to it eventually." Funny how no one ever mentions that in the ads...

    So what in the world is anyone talking about 5G for?!?

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2016 @ 12:43pm

    Re: Re: Re: Google changes rules

    So what you're saying is, Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest SOB on the road?

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2016 @ 12:41pm

    Re: Re:

    True enough. I just find this a particularly stupid assumption to make, and it boggles the mind a little to think that both the programmer and the driver made the same bad assumption. You never assume someone's going to make room for you before they actually make room for you. (Especially when they're bigger than you. I could go on a rant here about human psychology and bullying, but... do I even have to?)

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2016 @ 12:06pm

    Our test driver, who had been watching the bus in the mirror, also expected the bus to slow or stop. And we can imagine the bus driver assumed we were going to stay put. Unfortunately, all these assumptions led us to the same spot in the lane at the same time. This type of misunderstanding happens between human drivers on the road every day.

    Sorry, but no. I like Google, but I've gotta fault them on this. Any competent driver knows to never assume another vehicle will not do something stupid.

    When I'm about to change lanes and there's any possibility of another vehicle entering the same space, I put my turn signal on and turn the wheel just a tiny bit, drifting over slowly so the other driver can get the message. Then I watch the other car, and if they don't clearly defer to me and make room for me to move in, I abort, pull back to the center of my lane, cancel the turn signal... and then pull in behind them and honk at them for being a jerk who doesn't know to defer to someone with a turn signal on.

    But I never just go and assume they'll make room for me before they actually make room for me. That's just asking to get in a wreck, as we see here.

  • On the post: Google's Self-Driving Car Causes First Accident, As Programmers Try To Balance Human Simulacrum And Perfection

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2016 @ 12:01pm

    According to the report, Google's vehicle was in the right-hand turn lane in a busy thoroughfare in Google's hometown of Mountain View, California, last month, when it was blocked by some sand bags. It attempted to move left to get around the sand bags, but slowly struck a city bus that the car's human observer assumed would slow down, but didn't. All in all, it's the kind of accident that any human being might take part in any day of the week.

    Where in the world are you from, where that looks like an everyday occurrence? I've lived all over the US and also outside it, and I don't believe I've ever seen sandbags in the road obstructing traffic, particularly in the middle of "a busy thoroughfare"!

  • On the post: Judge In Different Apple Case Says That All Writs Act Doesn't Mean Apple Needs To Help Feds Break Into Phone

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2016 @ 08:11am

    A quick circuit split isn't necessarily a good thing right now, simply because we currently have 8 Supreme Court justices rather than 9, and it's looking like it might well be an unusually long time before we get a 9th justice back.

    Without going into any of the politics behind the whole mess, let me simply state two well-established and non-controversial facts.

    1) The current court is a highly polarized and evenly-balanced one. It had lots of 5/4 decisions, and the one who died recently is one of the 5.

    2) In the case of an even-numbered Supreme Court decision that splits 4/4, the decision under review stands.

    Therefore, if the California decision gets quickly appealed up to the Supreme Court as presently constituted, there's a high chance that it will not be overturned.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Dumps Apple's Slide To Unlock Patent, Tosses Massive Jury Award Against Samsung In The Trash

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2016 @ 11:43am

    People like autocorrect?

    Is Apple still living inside a reality distortion field? People hate autocorrect, because it regularly screws up what you meant to type. I've never spoken to anyone who actually enjoys it, and people I text with frequently curse its name after it renders what they meant to say as something bizarre and incomprehensible. This phenomenon is so common, in fact, that there's an entire website devoted to it.

    This is, of course, yet another example of how DWIM (trying to get a computer to "Do What I Mean" rather than what you actually said) never actually works reliably and is actively harmful more often than not.

  • On the post: Nissan Forgets Security Exists, Opens Leaf Owners To Remote Attack

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2016 @ 10:15am

    Re: VIN

    So what happens with the 100,001st Leaf? Reused VIN?

    According to Wikipedia, it's actually the last 8 digits that differ. #10 identifies the model year, #11 identifies the plant at which it was manufactured, and #12-17 are a serial number for the car. Therefore, if one plant manufactured more than 1 million Leafs (Leaves?) in one year, it would break this scheme, but that's not likely.

  • On the post: Techdirt Needs Your Help To Fight Encryption Fearmongering

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2016 @ 10:45am

    OK, that pic alone (in context) is worth a donation. Making a note to myself to chip in something when I get home...

  • On the post: Rather Than Ending NSA's Key Surveillance Tool, White House To Now Let Other Agencies Use It

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2016 @ 10:20am

    Spy on anyone we feel like?

    Yes we can!

  • On the post: Nissan Forgets Security Exists, Opens Leaf Owners To Remote Attack

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2016 @ 07:31am

    Nissan has yet to comment, likely because the company, like most automakers, is moving glacially to understand and replicate the vulnerability. GM, you'll recall, took five years to fix a flaw that allowed total remote control of some of its vehicles, a glacial cadence that's just not going to cut it in the IOT age.

    Meanwhile, when they found a way to hack into a Tesla a few months back--which required physical, not remote, access--Tesla pushed a software patch out to all affected cars within days.

  • On the post: Bill Gates Is Confused About Apple FBI Fight, Makes Everyone More Confused

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2016 @ 02:24pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Truest Me, I know What's Best For All Of You

    You're completely ignoring the fact that virtually none of the global population growth is happening in developed nations

    No, that's exactly the point I'm making: that it's the same developed nations that experienced the baby boom where we're seeing an end to population growth as the baby boom generation, comprising the largest demographic group, moves out of childbearing years.

    And no, the Baby Boom was not a worldwide event - it only covered the nations involved in World War 2 i.e. developed nations.

    Which, again, is specifically what we are talking about here. We appear to be in violent agreement, as they say.

    If you really think that health care and modern technology has "little to nothing" to do with population growth then I ask you to quote your sources and in return I'd present the ghosts of Nightingale, Pasteur, Fleming, etc would happily tell to f##k off back into your cave.

    First, I didn't say that health care and modern technology has little or nothing to do with population growth, but rather that they have little or nothing to do with the recent decline in population growth. And as all three of the people you cite above made their contributions before World War II, I hardly see how they have any relevance on the subject.

  • On the post: FTC Dings ASUS For Selling 'Secure' Routers That Shipped With Default Admin/Admin Login (And Other Flaws)

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2016 @ 08:02am

    Re: "Cloud"

    The term "head in the clouds" comes to mind...

  • On the post: Bill Gates Is Confused About Apple FBI Fight, Makes Everyone More Confused

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2016 @ 07:56am

    Re: Re: Re: Truest Me, I know What's Best For All Of You

    We're seeing low population growth and even decline because the largest segment of the population (the Baby Boom generation) is aging and moving beyond childbearing years. We're seeing it in developed nations throughout the world because the Baby Boom was a worldwide event, with a distinct, worldwide cause--soldiers returning home after the end of WWII--and developed nations contributed the most to the war effort.

    Health care and modern technology (or vaccines, for that matter) have little-to-nothing to do with it.

  • On the post: House Speaker Paul Ryan Demands TPP Be Renegotiated; Neglects To Mention It Was His Bill That Makes That Impossible

    Mason Wheeler ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2016 @ 08:41am

    Pedantic note

    is-that-your-own-petard-you're-hoisted-on?

    The phrase "hoist by his own petard" (note: "by", not "on") comes from Hamlet. A petard wasn't some sort of pole or hook that you hang things on; it was an explosive device used by French sappers to blow walls open. In modern English the phrase means "blown into the air by his own bomb."

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